Strover tilts her laptop so that Silas can see the various websites. She’s also called up a photo of the new man. At least she’s found love. Young love. And money, by the sounds of it.

‘We could go down there tomorrow morning,’ Strover suggests.

He glances across at her. Long queues on the A303, Cornish pasty for lunch. Not much of a weekend, but he’s got nothing else on and no commitments at home. An ex-wife who doesn’t want to see him and a twenty-one-year-old son, Conor, currently AWOL. He would like nothing better than to get Kate back on board, the super-recogniser unit up and running again. This time he would manage her properly. He also wants to ask her about the Bluebell, find out what she was doing there. But he knows his boss is never going to sanction a trip during office hours.

‘Two hundred and twenty miles, three and a half hours,’ Strover adds. ‘Maybe a bit less with blues and twos?’

17

Kate

‘Tell me exactly what happened,’ Rob says, his voice calm but concerned.

‘It was a lot of fuss about nothing,’ Kate says.

She’s back at the house, lying on her bed and talking to Rob on the phone. Not on FaceTime like they usually do, just an old-fashioned call. He didn’t seem to mind that they couldn’t see each other when she rang him, didn’t ask any questions, and she didn’t offer an explanation.

She doesn’t want to see his face, not right now, but it feels good to hear his voice, reassuring. He sounds like the Rob she knows and loves. She’s still fragile after what happened in the harbour and she’s looking forward to Bex’s arrival. She was meant to pick Bex up from Truro station, but she’s only just been given the all-clear by the paramedic who checked her over on the harbour slipway beside the café.

‘I was having a swim, like we always do,’ she continues telling Rob. ‘Out to the platform.’

‘And then?’

‘I got cramp in my legs, that’s all.’ She’s trying to downplay it as much for her benefit as his. She doesn’t want to dwell on how close she might have come to dying.

‘And nearly drowned. Doesn’t that worry you?’ he asks.

It terrifies her. But if she admits as much to Rob, he will rush down to see her and she can’t cope with that right now.

‘I must still be in shock,’ she offers. Her calf muscles are almost too tight to walk.

‘What were you doing before the swim?’ he asks.

‘Having a coffee. Like we always do.’

‘And what did you have?’

This is too weird. Rob interrogating her about her coffee choices. Now would seem the obvious time to quiz him about his own choices, but she can’t bring herself to ask. It suddenly seems so petty.